The Role of Emotions in Marketing - Literature review Example

Discuss the role of emotions in marketing and give some practical suggestions on how emotions can help sell a product Contents References 8 Bibliography 9 Question 1 A marketing professor claimed: “Customer satisfaction isn’t good enough anymore... we need to account for the customer’s emotions… how they feel about us deep inside their hearts”. Discuss the role of emotions in marketing and give some practical suggestions on how emotions can help sell a product of your choice. The twenty first century has often been dubbed as the age of the customer. In this age, customers are known to have the upper hand. Marketers all over the world are spending huge volumes of money just to ensure that not only the demands of the customers are met but that the customers are also provided with greater value. Positioning of a firm generally depends on the perceived image of a firm or a product in the eyes of the customer. The extent of market competition has led the customer to be perceived as the most important stakeholder of a firm or an organization. Marketers and researchers have often used the term consumer buying behaviour to explain the buying behaviour of the customer. They have tried to analyse the factors that have tried to influence it. Consumer buying behaviour can be defined as the psychological process behind the purchase making decision of a customer1. There are various models that try to define the consumer buying behaviour. The Black Box Model is the one that attempts to provide an insight into the factors that are taken into consideration by a customer while making a purchase decision2. Figure:1. The Black Box Model of Consumer Buying Behaviour. (Source: Meldrum & McDonald, 2007, p.70) The Black Box model of consumer buying behaviour states that the purchase decision of a customer is defined by certain external as well as internal factors. The external factors constitute aspects like economic factors, media, technologies, politics as well as social factors. Social factors are generally believed to be affected by the influence of peers of the customer as well as the demographic demands of that region. Finally the marketing mix also plays a major role in deciding the purchase act of a customer. These factors are analysed by the internal thought process of the customer which is also referred as the ‘Black Box’. This takes into account the emotional factors of a customer3. As stated by the Black Box model, emotions play a major role in the purchase decision of a customer. Recent studies have indicated that often this aspect is being ignored by the marketers who try to influence the customer by using various aspects of the marketing mix. The importance of emotions in consumer buying behaviour is considered to be very important as most of the elements of marketing mix are known to emotionally affect the customer. A study conducted by Fahey (2009) states that advertisements and other elements of marketing mix are generally used to influence the emotions of the customers. The importance of emotions can also be gauged from the Black Box model which states that the purchase decision is ultimately a product of human emotions. The researchers have also stated the use of ‘emotion mining’ to deconstruct the consumer’s internal thought process. He stated that deconstruction of such elements would enable a marketer to get inside the minds of the customer. This would not only enable the marketer to know the internal thought process of the customer but also provide an insight into the emotional aspects (Black Box) of the customer like commitments, choices and preferences. Emotional mining would also include positive and negative emotions. This would help a marketer in understanding the psyche of the customers. They could then design their elements in the marketing mix so as to arouse positive sentiments in the minds of the customer. Emotional mining also tries to uncover the expressed and unexpressed emotions of the customer. This is considered to be important as an understanding of the unexpressed emotions would help in gathering the hidden needs and wants of the customer. A firm which considers these unexpressed emotions stand a better chance of winning the minds of the customers. The customers would find greater value in their products which would lead to long term positioning of a firm. This in turn could create sustainable competitive advantage for the firm in the market4. A study conducted by Meirovich & Bahnan (2008) tries to find out the interrelationship between the product or service quality with the emotions and beliefs of the customer. They found out that the relationship between emotions and customer satisfaction is largely dependent on the process of attribution. They concluded that customer dissatisfaction is often due to situations which are beyond the control of the marketer. In addition, they also stated that it is very important for a marketer to find out the reasons as to why a certain dimension of the marketing mix leads to positive or negative emotions. They finally concluded that in most of the cases a customer exhibits positive emotions when the quality and conformance have a high value. Negative emotions arise when either quality or conformance is low in value5. The importance of customer marketing could be analysed from the studies conducted by Ng (No Date). In this research, the author has stated that customer satisfaction is based on the judgement of the customer after he/she has used a product. He also concluded that emotion plays a major role in the purchase decision of a customer6. The purchase decision of a customer is based on positive and negative emotions. These emotions are known to influence the positioning of a firm or a product in the minds of customers. Studies have also shown that the elements of marketing mix generate certain sentiments in the minds of customers. These sentiments or emotions are also generated after purchasing or using a product or a service. The values and benefits derived from the product lead to the generation of positive and negative sentiments in the minds of customers. The positioning of a firm or a product is entirely a reflection of the behavioural aspect of customers. Marketers must therefore consider the effect of emotion on the elements of marketing mix if they want to curve a niche for themselves in the competitive market scenario and gain sustainable competitive advantage for their products or services. Figure 2: Framework showing the relations between tradeoffs and customer emotions. (Source: Chitturi, 2009, p.90) The figure above shows the relationship between the emotional aspect of the customer and the various tradeoffs that occur while making a purchase. It is quite clear from the above figure that both positive and negative emotions play a significant role in the purchase decision of a customer. It can also be inferred that customer loyalty is often a product of the positive emotions of a customer. This positive emotion is generated before and after making a purchase decision. The figure also shows the effects of negative emotions and their relationship with customer loyalty. In most of the cases, it has been observed that negative emotion if left untreated leads to dissatisfaction which hampers the positioning of a product or a firm7. In order to create a suitable positioning, firm must not only focus on customer satisfaction. Efforts must be made to include the emotional aspect of the customer in the process of marketing mix. A positive sentiment or emotion goes a long way in creating sustainable competitive advantage for a firm. References Chitturi, R. (2009). Emotions by Design: A customer Perspective. Retrieved on September 15, 2010 from http://www.ijdesign.org/ojs/index.php/IJDesign/article/viewFile/577/250 Fahey, L. (2009). Emotions Influence Shoppers’ Choices. Retrieved on September 15, 2010 from http://knowledge.emory.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1293 Meirovich, G. & Bahnan, N. (2008). Relationship between the components of product/service and the customer’s emotions and satisfaction. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management. Retrieved on September 15, 2010 from http://upcommons.upc.edu/revistes/bitstream/2099/7059/1/Meirovich.pdf Meldrum, M. & McDonald, M. (2007). Marketing in a nutshell: key concepts for non-specialists. Butterworth-Heinemann. Ng, S. (No date). The Antecedents and Consequences of Customer Emotions in Collective Hedonic Services. Retrieved on September 15, 2010 from http://www.eiasm.org/documents/abstracts/7702.doc Pride, W.M., Hughes, R.J. & Kapoor, J.R. (2009). Business. 10th ed. Cengage Learning. Bibliography Anderson & Vincze. (2006). Strategic Marketing. 2nd ed. Dreamtech Press. Chaudhuri, A. (2006). Emotion and reason in consumer behaviour. Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More